A Little Harmless Submission 6 (18 page)

“He is not.”

Mal nodded. “Probably out that front bay window, although it could be from the bathroom.”

She looked over Mal’s shoulder and saw Rome. Mortification had her face burning red. Mal just laughed in her face. “It’s about time.”

“What?”

“That you let a man take care of you.”

She sighed and rubbed her temples. “I don’t need a man to take care of me.”

“No. But it’s nice to have someone there you can depend on.”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s kind of nice. Annoying, and I am going to read him the riot act when I get in there, but definitely nice.”

“I guess I should have seen it before.”

She studied him for a second. “You didn’t want the role.”

“No, babe, the two of us were meant for other things. We both knew that from the beginning.”

She nodded. Out of all her ex-lovers, Mal was the only one who understood. The only one who knew exactly what made her tick. Until Rome.

“Have you told him about the writing?”

She shook her head. “I’ve barely known him five days.”

“Five days and you slept with him already?”

She could feel her face turning red again.

“Lord, you are hooked. I guess I can see you when I come to visit Chris, Cynthia, and Jocelyn.”

She shook her head. “I still can’t believe I didn’t make the connection.”

“We didn’t talk much then, if I remember. Other than your writing and the job.”

“And your job.” She studied him for a moment. The summer they had met she had been green, so green she didn’t even know how to hide the fact that she found him attractive. With his mocha-colored skin, hazel eyes, and that winning smile—not to mention the body of a warrior—she had been surprised when he’d been interested in her. But soon, even with a little mutual attraction, their friendship became more important than the sex. And she knew she couldn’t deal with loving a man who was usually halfway around the world. “How long you have?”

“Just a couple of days. I have a gut feeling we’re going back out and soon, so I’m heading back to San Diego.”

She frowned. Mal’s gut was always right. And she hated that, hated that her friend was going to be in danger. Rationally, she knew it was stupid because that is what she trained for, as did Malachai. It was in his blood to serve and protect.

“Okay, well give me a call if you have a moment free.”

He looked back over his shoulder. “You sure I should do that?”

She rolled her eyes and leaned forward to give him a kiss on the cheek. The front door opened and that had Mal chuckling again.

“Talk to you later, Maria.”

She watched him drive away. Just a few moments later, she felt the brush of Rome’s fingers on her bare shoulder.

“You were acting like an ass.”

He slipped his hand down to her waist and pulled her closer. She felt the brush of his mouth against her temple, and she sighed.

“I know I was. I promise to be good from now on.”

“Really,” she said, looking at him from the corner of her eye. “And I was planning on having fun tonight.”

He gave her rear a pat. “Now that I can promise.”

She heard the deepening of his voice, felt the stirring within her. “Don’t you want to talk about the case tonight?”

He held the door open for her. “No, Maria, I think we need to have a little chat about discipline.”

Chapter Thirteen

Rome held the silky red blindfold in his hand as looked down at Maria and smiled. He had been thinking of this moment since their first night together.

She was tied up to his bed, her hands cuffed to his headboard. Her legs were stretched, cuffed to a strap that was attached to the bed. She was trying her best not to let him know how much this act unnerved her. For him, it was easy to see. Oh, she was aroused, there was no doubting that. Her breathing was hitched and there was a flush to her cheeks that had more to do with being turned on than frightened. The scent of her musky arousal filled the room.

The fear was there, though. She wasn’t afraid of him, not really. His training had taught him how to discern the difference. She was frightened of the feelings rolling through her now. It was something to play at being tied up, of choosing to be someone’s sub. In the act of tying her to the bed, he had taken a lot of the choice away from her. She had her own safe word, and she could have said no at any point, still could, and he would honor it. He might die from lack of blood to the brain, but he would definitely honor it.

Her gaze rested on the blindfold in his hands. He knew this was one big step for her, for them. He kept telling himself that this was just for a short time, but somewhere deep inside him he knew it was something else, something bigger.

He leaned over the bed and tied the blindfold on her. She didn’t pull away or show any worries about it, but he knew she had them. For someone so much in control of everything, this was the ultimate submission. He usually didn’t push his subs so far so fast, but after tonight, he felt he needed to show some kind of power, to let her know who was in control. And dammit, he had wanted to claim her.

“You have your safe word.”

She nodded but said nothing. He skimmed his hand down her chest, teasing her nipples. They were tight, easily showing him how aroused she was. As he slipped his hand down her body—enjoying the way her stomach muscles quivered in reaction—he leaned forward and took a nipple into his mouth. She was so sweet, so what he needed. Women were a delight, but something about the taste of her skin, the scent of her arousal, spoke to Rome.

When he slipped his hand over her pussy, he tried to calm his own heart. It never failed to amaze him how turned on she got with just a little play. And tonight he was going to test the limits. He needed to make her understand that even for this little bit, she was his.

He dipped his fingers into her sex and sighed against her breast. So hot, so wet. He knew just how she tasted. He wanted to do nothing more than forget all of this, all the toys he had assembled, and just fuck her until they both forgot their names.

He moved away from her, needing some space. He would never accomplish the pleasures he wanted to tonight if he didn’t gain some control over his own needs.

With considerable effort, he walked to the dresser and opened the drawer. He’d spent more money on toys in the last few days than he had in the last year. There was something so thrilling about showing Maria the pleasure she could gain from submission. Hell, if he wasn’t careful, he would go bankrupt trying to tie her to him.

He shook that thought away. He couldn’t think about tomorrow with her. Living in the moment is what would work.

Forcing his attention back to the present, he approached the bed. She wanted to squirm. Rome could read it in her expression. It was taking all her control not to do it. To reward her, he skimmed a hand up the inside of her leg. He liked that while she was muscled and in shape, there was a softness to her. He caressed her bare mound and felt his need for her rise. She was wet for him. All he had done was spank her and then tie her up. Just those two things had her close to coming.

He ran his hand across her mound, teasing her clit. “Remember, you are not to come without permission.” He pinched the tiny bundle of nerves and couldn’t fight a smile when she sucked in a quick breath.

Wanting to be comfortable, he slipped onto the bed next to her and picked up the vibrator. He’d bought it just for her earlier today. He wanted more, wanted to do more, but he knew that their time was limited. There was only so much he could take before he lost control. If he thought about it, he might worry. Since he’d come into the life, he’d never really had an issue. Until Maria.

He slipped the toy over her clit. She hummed. Now she did wiggle against it and let out a frustrated growl when she couldn’t move. Without saying anything, he moved between her legs and settled down. He skimmed the vibrator over her dripping slit, then into her. As she moaned, he bent his head and took her clit into his mouth. He knew the dual feelings would push her right to the edge. As he felt her orgasm approaching, he moved away and turned the toy down. Over and over, he pushed her to the edge but didn’t let her fall. He knew when he’d pushed her too much. “Come for me, baby.”

She sighed in relief and as he pulled her clit into his mouth, she came, her body bowing as much as she could being tied the way she was. His hands were shaking when he set aside the toy and grabbed a condom. He had it on in record time, untied her feet and rose to his knees, wrapping her legs around his waist.

He entered her in one hard thrust and then started to build her back up. He wanted to feel her come again, feel all those muscles tighten around his cock.

Soon she was moaning his name again. He pulled the blindfold off and kissed her. She opened her eyes just as her second orgasm shuddered through her body. Her eyes went blind with pleasure. It was too much for him. He thrust into her twice more then came, losing himself with her in their pleasure.

· · · · ·

“Hey, Rome, you have company.”

Rome looked up from his desk, expecting Maria. Instead he found Malachai Dupree striding his way down the aisle. Shit, he wasn’t in the mood, but from the look on the Seal’s face, he wasn’t going to turn around and walk away.

“Do you have a few seconds?”

“No, hello, nice to see you, Carino?”

The stoic look Dupree gave him told Rome he wasn’t in the mood. There was just no way he was going to get out of this, so Rome nodded and led Dupree to a conference room.

Once they were in there, Dupree studied the room.

“No recorders or cameras?”

Rome shook his head.

“Maria told me what’s going on. The whole plan.”

Shit.

“Don’t worry. I won’t blow your cover. Hell, I hope you catch the bastard, so she can get people off her back.”

“People off her back?”

“Yeah, you know being Big John Callahan’s daughter has some good things and some bad things attached to it. One of the bad things being that she has to deal with people thinking she got there because of him.”

“I can understand that.”

“I figured that’s why you lit out of Seattle. Hard to come from a family of cops and be a cop in the same city. I see it with guys who follow fathers into the military. Not always that easy to live up to. But, I digress. I said I was here to talk about Maria.”

Rome crossed his arms over his chest. He didn’t like the proprietary tone Dupree used when he said Maria’s name. “Go on.”

“I just want you to know that she might seem like she’s alone in the world, but she’s not.”

Rome said nothing, and he could tell that irritated the Seal. More than irritated him.

“You might think you’re just having a good time, but Maria is a good girl. She doesn’t need some jackass messing with her head.”

Aggravation marched down his spine as he tried to hold onto his temper. “Is that what you think I’m doing? That people who live the life like me are just messing with each other’s head.”

“No. But she doesn’t need another one like you.”

That gave Rome pause. “Another jackass? I thought she’d never submitted before.” He was sure of it. Besides the fact that she told him, her reactions had been too raw, too real for them to have been staged. He was sure he had been her first Dom.

And her last.

Rome pushed that thought aside. “Explain yourself.”

“She’ll kick my ass, but she was involved with a few guys at the bureau. All of them thought she could help their careers. As soon as they figured out she couldn’t, she was dumped.”

“I have nothing to gain from this.”

Dupree snorted. “Other than making yourself a big name by catching a serial killer. Putting her out there to be bait.”

“Hey, that was her crazy idea. And basically she told me if I didn’t help, she would do it anyway without me. She didn’t need my help, or so she said.”

“That’s what she said.”

“Then why are you yelling at me?”

“I thought maybe it had been your idea to begin with.”

Rome shook his head. “No. All hers. Sits there as pretty as she can be and tells me she’s going to be bait for a serial killer who likes to kill women who look like her.”

Mal sighed, a resigned look flashing in his face. “Damn, always fighting that old man. I thought after he died, she’d let it go.”

“Oh, yeah, and I have to deal with her acting like I’m being a macho asshole because I want her to be protected as she dangles herself in front of the killer like some big, juicy piece of steak. It’s enough to drive a saint to sin.”

“You don’t say,” Mal said, rocking back on his heels.

“And she really drives me insane. She’s so damned smart that she thinks she can’t mess anything up, but in this game, one little slip up and she could be dead. I couldn’t deal with that.”

Mal said nothing for a moment then he grinned. “Shit, you’re in love with her.”

“What?”

“You are knee deep and drunk in love with the woman.”

“No.” He couldn’t be. He was infatuated, like Amy said, that was all. She was so different than any of the other women he’d dated, and he really had never initiated a sub before her. It was that connection. That was all.

“Damn, this is good. You can take care of her, get her away from DC.”

He was still trying to figure out if Mal was right about his feelings when what he said penetrated his brain. “Get her away from DC? What the hell are you talking about?”

“I guess you haven’t had much time to chat, with chasing the serial killer, huh?”

Rome shook his head.

“She’s not built for the FBI.”

Anger had him striding toward the Seal, ignoring the fact that there was a good chance Dupree would knock him senseless with little effort. “What the hell do you mean? She’s an excellent agent. Her mind is amazing.”

“Yes, but that’s part of her personality. She is good at being things. Her father taught her that, may he rot in hell.”

Some of his anger subsided. “I take it you didn’t like him.”

“I never met him, but there is something wrong with a man who teaches his fourteen-year-old daughter to shoot because there is a good chance someone will kill her.”